More foreign parties flock to Singapore courts for arbitration

The city-state is Asia’s top arbitration hub.

Singapore was again named as Asia’s foremost dispute resolution centre by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

In 2015, over 6% of all new ICC cases named Singapore as the seat of arbitration upholding the city’s ranking as the number one seat of ICC Arbitration in Asia. Globally, Singapore was named as the fourth most chosen seat globally for arbitration hearings, retaining its position in the top five most chosen cities for the tenth consecutive year.

The ICC Dispute Resolution Statistics also showed that the number of foreign parties choosing Singapore as a seat for arbitration is on the rise.

In over 71% out of all new Singapore seated arbitrations filed in 2015, one or more of the parties was not Singaporean while in close to half of these cases, a non-Singapore arbitrator was appointed.

“It is important to highlight that under ICC Rules of Arbitration, parties do not require any Singaporean connections to arbitrate in Singapore. They also have the flexibility to choose an arbitrator of any nationality despite the seat of arbitration,” said Abhinav Bhushan, ICC’s regional director for South Asia.